This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Social Life at College of Law and BPP?? GDL

Hello all,

I am deciding between CoL (Bloomsbury or supposedly Moorgate may be an option I've heard) and Bpp Waterloo. I am an American who will know absolutely no one and would like to attend a place where I can actually meet people and make friends. I don't want to go somewhere where no one speaks to each other and then just goes home. Also I am of the opinion that since I am in England I should get to know English women and men. So merely hanging out with other internationals exclusively is not what I want from my experience at either of these places. I'm not trying to insult anyone just being honest. :smile:

So is it a cliquey environment? Do people have a pint at the pub once in a while and that's it? Are the "student clubs" a joke? What types of people, or career tracks seem to be most prevalent?
And personally, anything about people who play tennis? I love the sport and hopefully will meet people who would like to play.

Thank you in advance!!!

Reply 1

Redeyejedi

7

You may want to post this up on a website called "Rollonfriday.com" for a response. There will be more people on that site who are doing the GDL at BPP Waterloo/CoL who could advise you better. Most people on this sub-forum tend to be at university.

From what I gather from the people I know doing the GDL at BPP, it isn't cliquey at all. And quite sociable. But this is all second hand so I'd definitely recommend getting some more opinions!

Reply 2

naelse

15

I'm at CoL Moorgate and I spend lots of time at Bloomsbury as well. I don't think either is cliquey. We meet up for pints regularly and the boys in my workshop group play squash together. Obviously everyone lives in different places and some people have jobs so it's never going to be a uni-style social life. The workshop groups are separated into morning, early afternoon and late afternoon, so the number of people you are likely to actually meet up with after workshops/lectures is quite low really. People tend to socialise within their workshop groups and lecture groups. The clubs are good, and there is lots of money available for starting your own. The sport clubs are the most popular, I'm pretty sure there is a tennis one! At Moorgate most people are aiming to be corporate solicitors, at Bloomsbury there is a mix of different career aspirations.

Hope this helps!

Reply 3

Alexander

12

Florida Belle

...

Hello! Welcome to the forum. Just out of curiosity/nosiness, what is making you want to qualify in England?

I appreciate this isn't what you asked, and I might be accused of shamelessly plugging my own law school, but is there any reason why you're not considering law school outside London? The university-based GDL-providers such as Nottingham and Oxford Brookes are generally considered to have a better feeling of student community, and have a pretty high proportion of people who've come to the town knowing no one and are keen to make friends and have a mainly law school centred social life (certainly from my experience at Nottingham around 50% of people, including me, came the the city cold, and it is very sociable).

Anyway, in answer to your question I don't have any direct experience yet but I imagine that as with most stuff it's what you make of it. If you're out to make friends and get involved with stuff I imagine the opportunity will be there.

Reply 4

naelse

15

I agree with Alex that you might get a better student community feeling from a uni-based law school. BPP and CoL are good but they aren't universities and you won't get the kind of social life that basically comes from having loads of students around all the time.

Reply 5

emmings

12

^^ Ditto.

I am doing the LPC at OXILP (which is technically an independent college run jointly by Oxford and Oxford Brookes, but you are basically a Brookes student) and there is definitely a much more uni feel than CoL or BPP. You can live in Brookes halls, which quite a few do, and join all the normal societies and stuff. The GDL is much the same, except that you actually are a Brookes student for that. It's a good laugh.

Reply 6

Alexander

12

Florida Belle

...

OP, aren't you coming back? I'm sure we'd be interested in any follow-up questions/comments you might have.

Reply 7

Florida Belle

OP

Sorry everyone I was on holiday for the week. But thank you for all of your insights. I will especially go to the other site that was mentioned to learn more information. I'm not really looking for a University style social life just people open to making new friends, I realize that a great deal of my time will be spent studying. But I can't study all the time! :smile:

The type of law (International Cultural Property Law both corporate and private) I want to practice only has two major markets in the english-speaking world, New York or London. After interning there for a semester I realized that I'm vastly more suited to London than New York.

Thank you all again!!

Reply 8

Alexander

12

Florida Belle

Sorry everyone I was on holiday for the week. But thank you for all of your insights. I will especially go to the other site that was mentioned to learn more information. I'm not really looking for a University style social life just people open to making new friends, I realize that a great deal of my time will be spent studying. But I can't study all the time! :smile:

The type of law (International Cultural Property Law both corporate and private) I want to practice only has two major markets in the english-speaking world, New York or London. After interning there for a semester I realized that I'm vastly more suited to London than New York.

Thank you all again!!

Good to hear back from you; I didn't mean to sound annoyed that you'd gone away, I was just curious to hear back from you.

I think the advice does stand that if you want a mainly law school-based social life you would most likely be better off outside London. It's not exactly like undergrad, of course, as everyone is at least 21, with quite a few people in their mid-to-late-20s or even older (certainly at my law school we don't associate with the undergrads at all). But if you do decide to make a fist of London I'm sure you'll have a decent time :smile:

Social Life at College of Law and BPP?? GDL

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you